[Open] A Padawan's Plight

[MolotovCocktailParty]

Sorn surveyed the room, making sure everything was in place. The drones were ready to be activated, the dueling circles cleared; he had made absolutely sure that the room was in perfect condition for a good spar. After all, he wouldn't want the guests to be disappointed by a dingy arena.

Sorn had been asking around for a few days to see if any Padawans wanted to get together for a group sparring session. He wasn't new to the Order, but Sorn mostly kept to himself, so this would be good to meet some people and forge relationships among his peers. Only a few people had confirmed, but he hoped that others would wander in, and apparently even a couple of Knights were interested, if only in watching. Maybe they were looking for Padawans? With the shortage of Jedi Knights available to train younger members, if they were doing so, then this match would quickly turn into a competition. Not a bad thing, necessarily, since competition bred effort, but Sorn wanted to avoid any flared tempers, particularly his own.

The final touches made, he clipped his lightsaber (set to a mild buzz setting for the training) to the belt he wore over the charcoal-gray tunic. He wasn't wearing his usual brown robe simply because it was cumbersome and annoying for quick movement, and Sorn really didn't like to be restricted in his physical endeavors. Satisfied that nothing remained to be done, he settled in to wait.

 

[Master Maverick]

Akacen was again aboard the Jedi flagship The Will of the Force. He always felt a sense of impressiveness upon the vessel; he seemed to stand a little straighter. Today he chose to wear his training clothes; a green, light linen loose fitting long sleeved shirt with brown linen pants that were non-restricting.

He walked through the corridors of the ship, almost losing his way a few times amid the immense structure. Though he had grown up on Coruscant, and had a knack for finding his way, this was still so completely different and he certainly wasn't use to it yet.

Soon enough he found his way and found a padawan, though a bit older than himself, in the room, seemingly tiding up. It was one of the bigger practice rooms, more an arena. He knocked on the frame of the entrance, announcing his presence. "Sorn, is it?" He asked, with a bit of hesitation in his voice. He hated when already awkward situations for him became ever more awkward, such as when he was looking for someone and thought one person was them, but it wasn't.

 

[Syn]

Matsu entered the room and moved quickly as she went to a corner of the wall and held her parasol in her hands. She hadn't worn her coat and tunic but had her back framed and covered by her hair which made her sarashi stand out more. Slowly she ran a hand along the handle of her hidden sword and it went o the two lightsabers she had the one for training and the other for everything else. Matsu had been interested in meeting the newer students. It had been a little while but not much since she herself was a padawan and socializing was always fun. Matsu gave a laugh and looked as she saw Akacen enter and have a wave. He had grown some and she spoke keeping her back against the wall. She hadn't told anyone the good news except Chora and Saia so she wanted to see if he would notice her long hair was absent her padawan braid.

 

[Prancing Yawn]

Cat had heard there was some sort of tournament going on down the hall from his room on the Will, and he always liked watching fights on the Holonet, so he had decided to watch this one. He had grabbed a HUGE bucket of popcorn from the mess hall, lathered with buttery goodness. He nonchallantly munched on the fattening snack as he walked down the hall, and entered the room when he saw two Padawans inside.

"Ngronmngronmn - I mean, urghm - can I -nhcronmp nchronmp- watch?"

Besides watching the fight for pleasure, he was looking for a Padawan to teach in the skills of Teras Kasi. Most of them were more interested in shiny sticks and swords, which Cat knew none of.

 

[MolotovCocktailParty]

(OOC: btw, is his name pronounced Aka-sen or A-kay-sen?)

Sorn nodded. "Of course you can, Master. Anyone is more than welcome; after all, this is an open training session." He suddenly noticed an acquaintance of his, Matsu, in the corner, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. Sorn didn't know why. Was she here to participate? Oh well. Just then Akacen entered and Sorn looked up.

"Hello, Akacen. Yes, that is my name; at least someone remembers it around here."

He flashed a short, friendly smile, and then stretched, working out the kinks in his back that had been created from working in the disused room to get it ready for practice once again. He peered behind Akacen through the doorway but saw no one else coming. Looks like this was as good as it was going to get for the time being.

Sorn drew his lightsaber, making sure it was turned to the proper setting before experimentally switching it on and then back off, finding that it was operational. He stretched again, then took up the opening stance for the Form V -Djem So variant, with the blade held over his head, angled down so that the tip aimed at Akacen. This was a prefect stance able to easily react to most attacks and counter with maximum power.

"If no one else wants to participate - that's aimed at you, Matsu - then shall we get started?"

 

[Padmé]

Seems Haloburner has been getting around a lot these days. Thanks to Matsu, she now is in the know about the various activities of the Padawans. The young blonde made her way inside the location of the tournament.

According to Matsu there will be Jedi masters present – looking for new Padawans-. Haloburner didn’t know who all was invited but upon entering the room she spotted Akacen, and Matsu off course. On the far end of the room was two others, one had a huge bucket of popcorn. Akacen looked a tad bit taller since the last time Haoburner saw him on the infamous Padawan boat trip. The thought of the trip brought a smile on Haloburner’s face. “That was one trip to remember” she whispered as she located and tapped on Matsu’s shoulder. “I didn’t miss anything important did I?”

 

[Syn]

Matsu looked at Sorn and was about to speak when she heard Halo and was tapped on the shoulder. "No not yet, shows just about to begin." Matsu quickly looked at Cat and put her hand in his bucket and gave a smile. she took out a handful and slowly ate at it piece by piece offering some to Halo. "Want to watch or join in?" Then Matsu looked at Cat and back to Sorn. "You want us Sorn to join you? Sure about that?"

 

[Master Maverick]

"I try," he said with a chuckle. He did, in reality, have to try to remember people's names. Names of peers were not something he remembered as easily as historical figures or force/lightsaber technique terms and patterns.

There was a rather large and imposing man stuffing his face with food. It struck Akacen ((ah-KAY-sen)) as rather odd, but he didn't worry about it. People had to eat!

He noticed Halo walk in, remembering her quite well from their little trip with the others. He would definitely not forget the happenings on that trip any time soon.

He went towards the middle of the arena and unclipped the hilt from his belt and checked the setting on it make sure it was kept on the training setting he practically always had it on. To no surprise it was, and he ignited the bright yellow blade, getting into a typical Soresu position. Finally he would test his new skills and abilities in Soresu. He had been practicing Makashi more-so as of late with other students, but always on his own did he learn and practice more Soresu. He would, if the opportunity presented itself, pull out some of the Makashi techniques he knew, but it didn't seem as though it would be very often.

Calmly he took his position and went into a meditative state, quickly finding his center and focus before opening his eyes and looking at his new opponent as well as his surroundings.

 

[Padmé]

Haloburner sat next to her new trainer, Matsu, who was now offering her buttered popcorn. "No, thank you Matsu," the young Padawan responded while shaking her head. "And yes, I'd rather watch than get in there with Akacen and co. No offensive, but seriously look at me?"

The blonde couldn't believe how tall Akacen had grown since the last time they saw each other. And yes, who can forget that spacey trip? The only guy among a room yacht full of estrogen.

Haloburner glanced over to her left, were Matsu was sitting and then back to her right, where the other Padawan was sitting. She stretched her hand out to him and said "I don't believe we've met. I am Haloburner, Matsu's new trainee and Jedi Knight Remy's Padawan. Nice to meet you."

 

[MolotovCocktailParty]

Sorn stepped forward, swinging his blade up over his head and then back down again to gather as much force as possible in a simple vertical stroke. He had taken up Form V to take advantage of his better-than-average physical strength, and for good reason. Djem So wasn't about fancy footwork or intricate blade motions. It was about battering down your enemy with sheer power. Sure, most people were fast enough to block it. That was to be expected. But how many of them could block it without falling over, or at least creating an opening for the attacker to take advantage of?

Now that number was significantly lower.

The blade flashed as it descended, arcing down in a vertical stripe aimed to slice from Akacen's head down to the fork of his legs. If he hit, it would do nothing more than sting, of course, but still. It would probably not be very pleasant to take a full-force - or even a reduced - Djem So strike.

 

[Syn]

Matsu looked at Halo and spoke as she sat there watching. Akacen also had master Remy so Sorn was without but he had impressed her somewhat on Coruscant. Slowly she spoke grinned and spoke towards halo. "Well Haloburner we have the same build, if there were more I think Sorn would have asked the padawans to duel the knights. It would be an interesting site." Qith another laugh Matsu looked at Cat and took some more of his popcorn as she cheered. "Akacen you can do it." Matsu was laughing while she rolled her shoulders and watched it would be interesting and she did have a duty to pick a padawan. Halo was Remy's but she could still teach her and so she did.

 

[Prancing Yawn]

[[I'm assuming the Padawan you are referring to me is Cat, Padme, but he's a knight]]

"Thank you. No need to call me Master, though. Just call me Cat."

Cat walked over to the spectator benches Matsu was sitting on, and sat down on her left, still munching on the fattening snack. As he walked, he nodded to Haloburner, Akacen, and Sorn, whom he had not formally met. The duel had already begun, so he would not bother to interrupt.

"Nurgm nognm - So, Matsu, you're a Knight now? - nonmng," Cat inquired, noticing her braid was gone.

He then turned to Haloburner.
" Likewise, it is nice to meet you. Matsu will be a very good teacher to you - from what I've heard she's a very diligent learner of the Force."

"When you guys are done, I'll take you both on if you want a real challenge!" He laughed, not meaning to sound cocky.

 

[Master Maverick]

Sorn stepped forward, swinging his blade up over his head and then back down again to gather as much force as possible in a simple vertical stroke. He had taken up Form V to take advantage of his better-than-average physical strength, and for good reason. Djem So wasn't about fancy footwork or intricate blade motions. It was about battering down your enemy with sheer power. Sure, most people were fast enough to block it. That was to be expected. But how many of them could block it without falling over, or at least creating an opening for the attacker to take advantage of?

Now that number was significantly lower.

The blade flashed as it descended, arcing down in a vertical stripe aimed to slice from Akacen's head down to the fork of his legs. If he hit, it would do nothing more than sting, of course, but still. It would probably not be very pleasant to take a full-force - or even a reduced - Djem So strike.

The attack was simple enough, and therefore simple enough to evade. He knew all about Shien and Djem So, as he had been looking into them as a way to combine his liking of Soresu and Makashi.

Regardless, he knew he was no match physically for the padawan. He moved to his right, bring up the hilt of his saber, pointing the blade down to protect himself in-case he would decide to change the direction of the attack. Though, with the nature of Djem So, and obvious power behind the attack, that was unlikely.

While side-stepping he moved closer to his opponent, getting within his inner circle to mitigate the amount of time he could utilize to power up his attacks. He didn't attack though, he wanted to see the skill the padawan had; assess what he was capable of and how to exploit any weaknesses he may have.

 

[MolotovCocktailParty]

Dodging was the obvious counter to a full power stroke. To anyone with half a brain, blocking that was just plainly not a good idea. Therefore, Djem So did have a move to deal with their attacks being dodged. The laws of physics show that if the motion is circular and there is no point where the motion completely stops, the momentum continues to build. This was commonly taken advantage of by Form V practitioners.

Sorn rolled his shoulders, sliding his blade in a short U to send it to the left (Akacen's right) where he had dodged. At this range it would be difficult if not impossible to avoid their blades clashing, which would work to Sorn's advantage; the technique he had employed meant that instead of coming to a full stop and restarting his attack in a different direction, he used his own momentum to shift directions, building force all the while. This was going to be one hard hit.

 

[Master Maverick]

His redirection was almost a surprise, but Akacen didn't let it show. At this point the motions began to slow; as he had been working on and is currently trying to use something similar to force speed with precognition, or more an elevated form of sensing. Regardless of the not-even-noticeable slowed movements he was a quick thinker and needed to stop the momentum. Though he wasn't completely sure how. He would have to interrupt it in such a way that he couldn't just sweep it away and wind up for a counter-attack.

However, at the moment, he had to deal with the incoming attack. With his second step, he stopped quickly and turned so his left side was facing Sorn at the same time his saber came down. At this point, it would have barely missed him, but he wasn't one for taking chances. He brought up his own saber to meet Sorn's, 'guiding' it away from him. With that momentum he did a quick half-turn and would go for an impressively quick strike at his right side, attempting to touch his arm with the blade before spinning again (Akacen's) counter-clockwise, keeping close with his opponent.

 

[MolotovCocktailParty]

Well, he was quick. Considerably quicker than Sorn had expected. Sorn himself upped his performance to compensate; it looked like this might be a challenge after all. When Akacen spun away and launched the jab, Sorn had spun, pivoting on one foot to spin almost all the way around in a full circle in order to maintain his momentum. Redirecting his attack was all well and good, but it didn't stop the flow of movement, which is essentially the only option Akacen had at this point; if he kept dancing around and deflecting Sorn's saber without actually blocking it, the momentum would continue to grow and his attacks would become progressively more devastating.

Moving with the spin, Sorn held out his lightsaber one-handed with his right hand, using the momentum of the sudden pivot to carry him around in such a way that his blade would probably strike Akacen's exposed back, having avoided his jab (which would have just barely hit him anyway) by executing the pirouette. Unless Akacen had reflexes faster than any human he had ever known, this was pretty much a guaranteed hit, given the immense momentum built up behind the blow, the exposed nature of its target, and the rapidity of the turnaround.

 

[Master Maverick]

With the successive dodges, Akacen was kind of unhappy that his opponent was fast as well as strong. Though not particularly unusual, it just created a harder opponent. While his talents didn't necessarily lie in saber-play; in fact, he had yet to win a duel against anyone, his connection with the force compensated for that.

With his senses, he could tell the speed of their movements was increasing, but at the same time, it was going slower. At least, he felt he had a bit more time to react than usual, although it was almost negligible at this point.

Though he couldn't spin any faster, he twisted his torso so his blade would meet the other with Akacen's on the inside. They clashed and the energy of the momentum of his swing was jarring. He gripped his hilt with both hands hard and guided the green blade around his body, continuing with his spin placing his body in between Sorn and his saber. He spun into Sorn, trying to rip the hilt out of his hands pushing out, away from himself, and therefore Sorn.

Either way it worked, he would continue and end up placing his saber near Sorn's neck.

 

[MolotovCocktailParty]

(He does have two blue sabers, but he uses them for dual-wielding. His normal, single saber is viridian, though I may change it.)

Whoa. That was a clever trick, one that Sorn would not have expected Akacen to use. Akacen had finally broken Sorn's momentum chain; the cost, however, was his balance. That little step that separated Sorn from his saber was good, but it wasn't quite enough. Sorn leaned back, time seeming to slow, not from any Force power but just from the heightened perception that often kicked in when two evenly-matched opponents fought. Using the Force to keep himself from falling over backwards, Sorn leaned until he was essentially horizontal, Akacen's green blade passing mere millimeters above his nose. As it passed, time seemed to regain its normal flow and he exploded back upward, reversing the grip of his lightsaber so that while Akacen's saber was out wide from the attack, Sorn could stab the blade towards himself, in a motion that would normally impale Akacen from behind, but would really only burn a hole in his robes under these circumstances. Given that his blade was only inches from Akacen's back, and his own blade was out too far to do anything, Sorn really didn't see any possible way that Akacen could avoid this blow; even a desperate Force Push would not help. This was game, set, and match.

 

[Master Maverick]

He was genuinely surprised that he bent backwards so far that his saber went harmlessly over his face by a good few inches.

With the momentum created by it, he kept going in his counter-clockwise circle, wanting to twirl and disengage to get distance again. Bringing his saber around, he moved his arms so the blade would now face the ground, covering his body, and was shocked when it hit his opponent's, though it did sear his shirt. Out of pure shock, surprise and re-action, he spun, bashing the saber away with all his strength, spinning as fast as he could pushing from his core with the force, trying to drive Sorn's body and arm away from him.

It was a push that came from every part of his body. He had never performed such a maneuver before and only realized what he did after he was a few feet away from Sorn.

 

[MolotovCocktailParty]

In the end, he had gotten a hit in, though it was extremely minor. Sorn was just about to take advantage of the opening and come in for the match-ending blow when suddenly he found himself thrown violently backwards, crashing into one of the thankfully padded walls and slumping down. Rising shakily to his feet ,lightsaber still ignited, Sorn put a hand on his head and wondered what in the name of the Emperor's black bones just happened. Was that... was that a Force Push? It was on a totally different level from what Sorn was used to. Normally a Force Push from another Padawan might knock him back a few steps, but this was something else entirely, something he was not familiar with. He looked at Akacen with a new, calculating gaze. Sorn had not dismissed his fellow Padawan as a pushover, exactly, but had with his usual confidence believed that he could win in a fight. While that was probably still true of a direct battle, he was now not so sure that in a straight-up battle, no rules, he would emerge the victor. Battlefield prowess did not always guarantee success.

If Sorn was to have any real chance of winning this battle without using Force powers, he was going to have to step up his performance. He was not going easy - this was him going all out - but he had not been fighting Akacen as he would a real opponent in a battle that mattered. He had been fighting him in the manner two friends might spar. Clearly, that wasn't enough. Sorn decided that it would be a good idea to reinforce Akacen's assumption about him - the younger Padawan thought he was a dumb brute, something patently not true but which Sorn made no efforts to dispel. If Akacen thought he was stupid, he would be more likely to slip up.

"The hell was that?" he asked with a friendly, if slightly vacant, smile. "I didn't expect a sudden blast of Force like that - Akacen, was that you? I wouldn't have thought you capable of it. Good job."

Sorn was being deliberately condescending because he knew Akacen hated it. There would be time for relationship building later; for now, he was focused on the fight. While he walked back to his previous position with exaggerated slowness, he ran his mind over Akacen's moves. They were very defensive, with the spinning block and the redirects classics of Form III; he was definitely using Soresu. That made sense, and it fit with Akacen's personality and manner of fighting, preferring to defend, wear the enemy down, and then counterattack when they got frustrated and left an opening. It was also good for dealing with an aggressive form like Djem So. However, Sorn could fix the imbalance by switching to his preferred Shien variant; his slightly higher skill with it over Djem So would counteract that it was designed for multiple opponents, and Form V in general but Shien especially was born of Form III, as a more aggressive version of the too-passive Soresu.

However, there was something else that bugged Sorn. Sure, Soresu accounted for 90% of Akacen's moves, but every once in a while, he included something else, something like the twist he'd made with his saber to counteract Sorn's greater force, or the sudden, short swipe from close range that had forced Sorn to bend backwards to avoid. The motions were somewhat untrained, but overall tight, controlled, usually short, and very efficient. It was like dueling, almost... was he using Makashi? Mixing in the saber-combat-oriented Form II would counteract Soresu's weaknesses and add an element of unpredictability to his blows that might finish an overconfident opponent. This was getting interesting. Sorn was a learn-by-doing type, and also had greater stamina than Akacen, so he could afford to go on; he would just learn new moves. Akacen, however, had less time to play with. While he probably wasn't very tired yet, he would certainly tire sooner than Sorn would, which meant he would make his move more quickly - maybe not soon, but in the near future. Sorn would have to watch out for it; he had underestimated and misjudged Akacen already, and it had almost cost him the match. This time, he would be ready.

Sorn stepped onto the spot where he had started the duel, now ready to continue. His panting had ceased and his breathing was now measured, regulated to allow both sudden explosive actions and maintain extended exertion. He raised his viridian saber over his head and then to his left, side facing Akacen to minimize his attackable area, and then brought it back down on the other side so that the blade pointed toward the floor in a typical Shien defensive stance. This time he would play the game slower, more defensively, to force Akacen out of his element so that a sudden, explosive attack like were more normal for Sorn would be able to catch him off guard. Sorn stared across his saber at Akacen, waiting, only his newly hardened eyes, set with fresh determination and respect, betraying the analyses and mind-shift that had taken place in the minute or so since they had ended their last engagement.